Holding and weighing mechanism



I A. s. SAMUELS. HOLDING AND WEIGHING MECHANISH. APPLIQATIQN FILED IULYSI, 920.

41,407,224. M M Q t iysla UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED S. SAMUELS, F SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS.

. Y HOLDING AND WEIEGHING MECHANISM.

. citizen of the United States, residing at Weighing Mechanism, of which the follow-" .Saugus, in. the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Holding and in is a specification.

y invention relates to apparatus for transferring materials of various kinds fromone place to another, and particularly to apparatus ofthis class which comprises a suspended bucket, platform or other materialholding member thiat is moved back and forth between two p aces or locations at one of which said member is loaded and at the other unloaded.

An example of an apparatus of the class referred to is found in bucket-cranes such as are provided at wharves and on lighters and used to transfer coal and other materials from the hold of a barge or other boat to the wharf or a vessel. An apparatus of this kind comprises a bucket attached to one end of a cable which extends upwardly from said bucket through a pulley block carried at the free end of a boom. The opposite end of the boom ismovably mounted upon a suitable support so that said boom can be swung laterally, and usually so that it can be swung up and down. Through well known mechanism the bucket cable is operated to raise and lower the bucket, the boom being shifted laterally on its support to transfer the bucket to and fro. lit has heretofore been customary to measure the material as it was shifted from one point to another, bycounting the number of bucketsful transferred and multiplying the same by the average weight of a single bucketful of material. This method of measuring, however, was inaccurate and therefore unsatisfactory and an object of my invention is-to improve the construction of cranes of this kind so that the actual weight of the material being handled thereby may be quickly and accurately ascertained To these ends my invention consists of an apparatus for transferring material from one place to another including a bucket or other load holding member and characterized by the rovision of means for weighing said load during transit.

Other features of my invention are hereinafter pointed out.

Specification of Letters Patent. P t t 1922 Application filed July 31, 1920. Serial No. 400,392.

Inthe accompanying drawings Flgure 1 shows in side elevation and, in more or less diagrammatic fashion, a crane constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a front view of the upper end portion of the boom of the crane shown in Fig. 1. Figure 3 is a plan view of the parts show in Fig. 2.

Having reference to the drawings, 1 represents the boom of a crane pivotally mounted at 2 upon a support 3 which may be a car movable laterally upon rails .or a lighter or the'like (not shown). The boom 1 is swung up and down, or adjusted, upon its pivot 2 as required by the usual mechanism including a cable 4. At its free end the boom 1 has a lever 6 pivotally mounted thereon at 5, one end of said lever being connected by a yoke 7 and link 8 with a pulley block 9. Through this block 9 extends a cable 10 tonne end of which is attached a bucket 11 of ordinary construction. From bucket 11 the cable 10 extends upwardly around the sheave 12 of block 9' and thence downwardly around a sheave 13 on support 3 to the usual Windlass 14 also mounted upon said support. 7 The opposite arm of lever 6 has connectedto it one end of a'wire cable 15 which extends downwardly from said lever around a sheave 16 mounted on support to another lever 17 fulcrumed at 18 on said support, to which the other end of said cable is attached.

holding a supply of fluid under pressure such as compressed air or steam. By means or a normally closed three-way valve, 25,

communication between cylinder 22 and reservoir 24: is controlled. The block 20 is connected by a link 26 with a scale beam 27 fulcrumed at 28, said beam being made as usual with graduations (not shown) and provided with adjustable weights 29, 291 and removable weights 30.

A. stop 31 secured to boom 1 in position immediately below the arm of lever 6 to which block 9 is connected normally supports said lever so that it carriesbucket 11 and the weight of the load within the latter.

In operating the apparatus above de scribed the bucket, after being loaded, is raised by means of cable 10 and windlass 14 and brought to rest at anflelevated position; The operator then operates valve 25to connect cylinder 22 with reservoir 24 which admits fluid under pressure into said cylinder above piston, 21 and the latter is forced downwardly and acts through cable 19, lever 17 and cable to swing lever 6 from the full line position to the dotted .line position shown in Fig, 1, so that said lever is no longer supported by the stop 31 and consequently the bucket and its contents is then supported by one end of the pivoted lever 6, which is arranged at any ratio of leverage desired, and the weight is thus transmitted through cable 15, lever 17 and cable 19 to the lever-27. Levers 17 and 27 are arranged at any ratio of leverage desired and lever 27 is graduated as a scale beam in the usual manner. By adjustment of the weights while the parts are held in proper position the weight of the contents of bucket 11 is quickly ascertained; After thus weighing the contents of the bucket the operator reverses the position of valve 25 shutting 01f communication between cylinder 22 and reservoir "24; and connecting the upper end of the cylinder with the outside atmosphere through a port '32,

provided in valve 25. The weight of the bucket 11 then acts to swing the lever 6 back into its full line position, w ere it is sup orted by the stop-31, the movement of the ever at this time acting throu h cable 15, lever 17 and cable 19 to return t e g ston 21 to the upper end of cylinder 22. he boom 1 is then moved as desired, the bucket dumped and then returned to the loading position.

It may be desirable in practice to rovidethe pivots of levers 6 and 17 with ba 1 bearings. As has been said, the leverage of levers 6 and 17 may be arranged as desired, so that the scale beam 27 will require relatively small weights to record and measure a heavy load in the bucket 11. The sliding weight 29 may obviously be adjusted to offset the weight-of bucket and connections, while the net weight of the load may be recorded by \sliding weight 291 or removable weights 3t).

What I claim is: 1. An apparatus of the character described, comprising a load-holding member;

a boom; a pivoted lever at the free end of the boom; a scale beam; connections between opposite ends of the pivoted lever and the load-holding member and the scale beam re spectively; a stop upon the boom limiting movement of the lever; means to separate the lever and the stop at will to cause the weight of the load to become effective upon the scale beam.

2. An apparatus of the character described, comprising a load holding member; a boom; a block; means through which said block is connected with said boom with provision for movement relatively thereto under the influence of the weight of said holder on said transporting member for supporting I said load holding member; a stop for limitin the movement of said supporting means re ativel to said transporting member under the influence of the weight of said had holding member and its load; a scale beam; means connecting said scale beam with said supporting means, and means for adjusting said connecting means to cause the weight of said load holding member to'operate said beam.

4. An apparatus of the character described, comprising a boom; a pivoted lever mounted at the free end of the boom, a pulley-block sustained by one end of the ivoted lever; a load holding member sustalned by a cable passing through the pulley-block; a stop upon the boom to support the pivoted lever; a connection from the other end of the pivoted lever to a scale beam; means to raise the lever from the stop to cause the weight of the load to become effective upon the scale beam.v

Signed at Boston, Massachusetts, this thir tieth day of July, 1920.

. ALFRED S. SAMUELS. 

